I Love You
by Arabella-x
Summary: Hermione's going back to Hogwart's and Ron struggles to say goodbye. Cute and fluffy.


_Disclaimer- The beautiful, wonderful J.K Rowling owns Harry Potter. Not me. I just like to play with her creations :)_

"Could you two please take that elsewhere?" Eighteen year old Ron Weasley moaned at his best friend and his sister. Ginny's head was bent into Harry's shoulder while he kissed her neck, and every few seconds she'd lift her head to connect their lips.

"Yeah, sure Ron. Let's go to my room Harry..." Ginny smirked at her older brother.

"Or not." Ron stepped in front of the staircase leading to upstairs. "There's no time, we've to leave now anyway. Where's Hermione?"

"I'm here! Sorry! I couldn't find half of my books and then I remembered they're still in that expandable bag." Hermione shook her head at her own forgetfulness while Ron raised his eyebrows slightly at his girlfriend's flustered face. "Ready?" She smiled at Ginny, trying to avoid Ron's eyes.

"Yeah, Dad sent an owl saying he'll be back in five minutes so we have until then." Ginny replied. "So say your goodbyes." Ginny looked pointedly at her brother, who was concentrating intently on making a fork dance. Ron's eyes burned red. "C'mon out to the garden Harry, we'll wait there." Ginny pulled her boyfriend by the hand while Harry turned his head and give Ron and Hermione a thumbs up.

Hermione walked towards Ron and grabbed the fork. "Honestly, Ron. Look at me."

Ron set down his wand and turned around. "What?"

"Let's not argue please."

"I'm not arguing."

Hermione sighed and rubbed her forehead. "I don't want to leave like this."

"Then don't go." Ron shot back.

"I...I have to." Hermione pleaded with him. "I have to finish Hogwarts, Ron. You know that."

"So you'd rather spend another year back at school, where you have nothing else to learn, than spend it with me? Yeah, I completely understand that Hermione."

"It's not like that! I need to get my NEWT's, and there's always more to learn Ron! I have the opportunity to become a better witch, why would I not take it?"

"You have offers flowing in from everywhere, Hermione! Everywhere wants you to work for them!"

"Because of what we done Ron, not because of me! I want to prove that I can do it to myself, not everyone else. Can you not understand that? I'm so happy for you and Harry getting in with the Aurors, but you have to understand thats not what I want to do. I want to finish my exams, and at school I can gain more members for S.P.E.W and I can finish what I started. Please understand. It's only one year..."

"You're seriously picking them houselves over me?"

"It's not just them, Ron! But I do want to take S.P.E.W further, I want to make a difference. I have a bigger influence now, I could actually change things...I could help them." Hermione depserately tried to reason with him.

Ron shook his head and dropped it. Part of the reason he loved Hermione was her passion for helping others, but not when it would stop her being with him. "I don't want you to leave, Hermione! Can you not understand that?"

"I-I-Is this about Fred?" Hermione asked Ron timidly. She regretted it instantly. His eyes bore straight into hers and she knew the answer. He didn't want to lose anyone else like he lost his brother. He was just trying to protect her, like he couldn't protect Fred.

"No, Hermione." Ron's voice was slow and strained. "It's not about my dead brother. It's about the fact that you are leaving to go back to Hogwarts for a whole year, where there are going to be young wizards desperate to be with you! You're Hermione Granger! You're one of the _'Golden Trio'_, and funnily enough people are interested in that! So you go back to Hogwarts and I'm sure you can send me an owl every now and then to update me on your life, yeah?" Ron blinked furiously.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought Fred into this." Ron closed his eyes at his brother's name and Hermione touched his shoulder. "We all miss him, Ron. We always will." The months since Fred's death had come and gone, but his memory filtered through every part of The Burrow, every memory, and every glance at George's pained face. Hermione and Ron talked about Fred every day, and it helped him, but she knew now wasn't an appropriate time to start a deeper conversation. This was about them.

Harry and Ginny walked back into the room and looked startled and Ron and Hermione's faces. "Um, Dad's here. We need to leave now..."

"Coming." Hermione told Ginny, not removing her eyes from Ron's. She waited until she was sure Harry and Ginny had left before speaking again. "Ron it's taken us seven years to get to this place, and I still don't really understand you sometimes. But I know that you know I need to do this. This matters to me. You and Harry will be busy anyway, trying to round up the rest of the Death Eaters. It's not like we'd always be together, but if you really need me to stay here, then I will."

Education had always been Hermione's priority, and in a way it still was. But she'd changed in the last year. After the destruction the second war had caused, she realised how lucky she was to have the people she loved with her. Ron. Harry. Ginny. Her family. It had never been an either or before, but if that's what it came down too, she couldn't not pick Ron. They faced everything together.

"Go." Ron said slowly.

"Really?" Hermione noticed the uncertainty in his voice.

"Yeah, it's what you want. Go. I'll be busy with Harry and George anyway, right?"

"Right." Hermione agreed.

"'MIONEEEE." Ginny called. "Do you really want to be late and have to make a grander entrance than already awaits?"

Hermione let out a slight giggle, and stretched up to kiss Ron. He responded, but it wasn't quite the same. "Well, bye then." Ron smiled at her and she couldn't help noticing the way his lips curled.

"Yeah. Bye..." Hermione stared at him waiting for him to say something else, but he turned and walked away from her. She made her way out to Ginny, trying to blink back the tears that threatened to spill.

*.*

Stupid Hogwarts. Stupid job. Stupid Hermione. Stupid _Ron_." Ron kicked the edge of his bed. He didn't want her to go. He'd been with her for seven years, and it seemed wrong to be without her for any length of time. Especially now, after the war. After the destruction. After Fred...

But Ron shook his head. He missed his brother more than anything in the world. Everything had seemed so grey for so long, but when he and Hermione finally got together she brought back the colour. Sure, there was still dark times, but she pulled him through it. She always did. Ron tried to live the way Fred would have wanted, and hating himself for hurting Hermione wouldn't have been what Fred wanted. Ron smiled as he imagined what his brother would have said. _"Aw, is ickle Ronnykins upset his girlfriend has a life outside him?"_ Fred would have mocked Ron continuously, but he would have wanted him to be happy. And Hermione made him happier than he thought possible. "Thanks, Fred." Ron whispered.

"Who are you talking to?" Harry leaned against the doorway looking about.

"Me? Oh, noone. Just myself...shouting at myself really."

"We heard it. This is Hermione, what did you expect? She was always going to finish exams if she got the chance."

"Yeah, I know. It's just the three of us have always been together and it'll feel weird just the two of us. We won't be able to cope." Ron laughed half-heartedly.

"I have to agree with you there, she has got us through a lot. But it's more than that Ron, you'll miss her." Harry put it bluntly.

"Well, yeah, the three of us-"

Harry cut him off. "This isn't about the three of us. This is about you and Hermione. You'll miss her as your girlfriend, like I'll miss Ginny. It's different now, and that's okay. You're in love with her, and she needs to know that."

Ron glanced at the clock that had just hit 10.54. "The train leaves in six minutes."

"So say goodbye properly." Harry shrugged his shoulders at his best friend, amazed at how stubborn he could be.

*.*

"Hermione!"

Hermione turned around looking for the voice she knew so well, but she couldn't see the mop of red hair. "What are you looking for?" Ginny asked as she came through the barrier to platform nine and three quarters.

"Nothing, thought I heard something." Hermione replied.

"Hermione!" She wasn't imagining it, and this time she could see the gangly figure of Ron run across the platform. He stopped and was panting.

"What are you doing here?" Hermione asked him, astonished.

"Just-wanted-to say- bye!" He breathed. "Apparated, ended up in a Muggle's bedroom- had to try again."

Hermione burst out laughing. Ron's innocent face spread into a grin aswell. "Bye, I guess?" Hermione smiled as she wrapped her arms around her boyfriend. She noticed Ginny and Harry embracing and hoped Harry had a more sucessful apparation that Ron's attempt.

"I'm sorry. I'm so stubborn I know, I'll work on that when you're away. You'll come back to a brand new Ron!" Ron grinned.

"No, don't ever change. I like that you're stubborn, it keeps us interesting. I like that we can challenge each other and that we learn new things from each other. I like us." Hermione had just noticed the crowds of people surrounding them, gaping. Ginny and Harry were standing awkwardly speaking to people, as the crowds came closer. All wanting a piece of The Boy Who Defeated Voldemort. Ron and Hermione pulled apart and stood hand in hand awkwardly smiling at those who stared at them. At 10.57, student's began to board the train and they finally had peace. Ron pulled Hermione to a secluded corner.

"I just want you to know I'll miss you, as my best friend and my girlfriend. We'll still be us when you come back. But most importantly, I want you to know that I-I-lo" Ron's ears burned red and he looked at the huge clock. 10.58. And he was too embarrased to say what he'd come here for.

"That I won't give into the temptation of all the witches who throw themselves at me." He finished awkwardly. That'll do.

Hermione's face held a mixture of emotions. Elation, then to confusion, then to raised eyebrows. "I should think not." She spluttered. "But same to you Ron, and if that's all then...I better go. I'll see you very soon, you know McGonagall will let you visit anytime, and I'll be back for the holidays and we'll write everyday."

"Yeah, I'll come visit." Ron's ears were still red and he tried again. "I'm trying to say- what I mean is- I really- Don't go off with any other wizards, okay?" That was his best attempt.

"Don't be ridiculous, Ron." Hermione rolled her eyes at Ron's stupidity. Honestly. They walked towards the train and she turned to him. He pulled her close to him and crashed their lips together, feeling the smoothness of her lips, the softness of her hair, the Hermione scent that captured him so entirely. She grasped his hair and tried to etch his smell into her brain, but she could probably smell a love potion for that. She smiled into their kiss and allowed his tongue to battle with hers. She loved standing on her toes for him and that he could lift her when they were feeling passionate. He loved the way she would respond to him, the way she made him feel. They loved each other for who they were and that couldn't be broken. They balanced each other out and he even grew to love her stupid all knowing ways, he found it cute. She loved the way she could bring him to tell what he really felt, a nearly impossible task where Ron Weasely was concerned. And in that moment they both realised that their stupid fights didn't matter, and they never really would, because they loved each other. Hermione and Ron had fought off a lot in their seven year friendship, and they'd come out stronger in the end. They'd survived a war, literally, so what did it matter if they had a stupid argument every now and then?

10.59.

They broke apart and shifted as the faces pressed against the train windows watched them. He stood opening and closing his mouth, almost mouthing the words. _I love you. I love you. I love you._

"Oh, Ron, just say it!" She took his hands in hers and squeezed gently, and he felt relieved. She knew. She knew he loved her and she loved him too. He didn't need to fear rejection, because this was Hermione and she was his. The one thing in the world he didn't have to share with anyone. The one person who adored him more than anything. Bloody hell, she was willing to not go back to Hogwarts for him, and that was something. He wasn't scared anymore.

"I love you."

"As I love you." Hermione brushed their lips one last time, before she stepped onto the Howarts Express for the final time. She brushed a tear that fell from her left eye as the clock hit 11.00 and the train began to move off. Ginny stood by her side and wrapped her arm around Hermione's waist as they watched the platform fade.

Ron and Harry stood side by side, grinning and waving at the two girls who made everything seem okay again after a very, very difficult year.

_My first Hermione/Ron piece! What do you think? I've been away a while, my laptop broke and I had loads of drafts for stories written on it and lost all motivation to rewrite them! But I'm back now! Anyway, what pairing what you like to see next? I was thinking maybe a next generation one? or maybe James/Lily? Or a longer story? I need your inspiration! THANKS xxx_


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